bears and so well deserves."

"Brother Luce," said Basil, "you grow excited upon this subject, and
that is something of a rarity to see. I agree with you, however, in all
you have said. Previous to our leaving home I read several books
upon natural history. They were the works of distinguished
closet-naturalists. Well, I found that all the information they
contained about the animals of these Northern regions--at least, all
that could be called _information_--I had read somewhere before. After
thinking for a while I recollected where. It was in the pages of the
traveller Hearne--a man who, among these scientific gentlemen, is
considered only in the light of a rude traveller, and not deserving the
name of naturalist. Hearne journeyed to the Arctic Sea so early as the
year 1771; and to him the world is indebted for their first knowledge of
the fact that there was no strait across the Continent south of the
seventieth parallel of latitude."

"Yes," said Lucien, "he was sent out by the Hudson's Bay Company,
perhaps more scantily furnished than any explorer ever was before. He
underwent the most dreadful hardships and perils, and has left behind
him an account of the inhabitants and natural history of these parts, so
full and so truthful, that it has not only stood the test of subsequent
observation, but the closet-naturalists have added but little to it ever
since. Most of them have been satisfied with giving just what poor
Hearne had gathered--as, in fact, they knew nothing more, and could not,
therefore, add anything. Some of them have quoted his own words, and
given him the credit of his vast labour; while others have endeavoured
to pass off Hearne's knowledge as their own, by giving a slightly
altered paraphrase of his language. This sort of thing," said Lucien,
"makes me indignant."

"It's downright mean," interposed Norman. "All of us in this country
have heard of Hearne. He was a right hardy traveller, and no mistake
about it."

"Well, then," said Lucien, cooling down, and resuming the subject of the
marmots, "these little animals seem to form a link between the squirrels
and rabbits. On the side of the squirrels they very naturally join on,
if I may use the expression, to the ground-squirrel, and some of them
differ but little in their habits from many of the latter. Other
species, again, are more allied to the rabbits, and less like the
squirrels; and there are two or three kinds that I should